I ordered some Landscapes dyes from Virgina Farm Wool Works. Talk about quick – I ordered them yesterday, and they were here today.

Of course, being the impatient soul that I am, I had to dye stuff immediately 🙂
I have a few hanks of 8ply (DK weight) wool that I plan to use for Clapotis, so I whipped out all the equipment and set to work. The biggest pyrex dish I have only held one 200g hank, so I only did one. First I gave the wool a nice soapy bath.

I wanted to use all three colours in random dyeing, so I got to work. Pink first!

Then blue.

Purple came next, but I didn’t get a picture. Why not? Because at this point, I realised that I had spilled permanent dye all over the benchtop, the sink, various spots on the floor, and it had seeped through a tiny crack in one glove finger, rendering my forefinger a lovely shade of bright blue. This is my benchtop.

So at this stage, I tossed the dish into the microwave and cooked her up, while I got out every cleaning fluid in my cupboard and attacked the benchtop. Thank heavens for Rapid Mould Kill. Smells like shit, but it worked. 🙂
Anyway, ta-da! Here is the finished product.

The purple is more vibrant than it appears here. And now tomorrow I have to try to repeat the experience. Preferably without dyeing the whole kitchen.

Jill sent me some gadgets! 🙂

I love gadgets. There were other things in the package, but they are intended for Em’s christmas stocking, and she’s a snoop, so they can’t go up here yet. I had asked Jill to get me a Chibi (or two 😉 and she popped way more in there for us. There are so many gadgets that can be got in the US that we can’t get here.
I finished the first sleeve of the neckdown and started the second. Hopefully I can have this sweater done by the end of the weekend, and start something new.
I should never say something like that, because if I say it, it never happens!

I got some sleevage done!

I feel much better about it now – it seemed to get too narrow too soon before I ripped it back. Now I think I may have spaced the decreases too far apart, but time will tell. I also started a pair of socks for Emily. I’m getting a little impatient waiting for my sock yarn and beads for the beaded socks 🙂 Mind you, it probably won’t get here before Friday at the earliest.
I went to the Post Office today to mail off some Christmas cards. This is somewhat of an Event, as I am usually way too lazy to write and mail Christmas cards. Of course, when I got there, the queue was out the door of the Post Office, so I quit and came home 🙂
When I downloaded the sweater picture from the camera, I found that Em has been busy with my camera. This is our other family member, Fuzzy Lumpkins. Despite all good intentions to teach him to talk, it never happened, although he doesn’t realise that he is a bird. He is quite sure that he is a Person. He lives in our family room, near the back door with a clear view of the refrigerator. Whenever someone opens the fridge or goes near where the bread is kept, he reminds us that he is there and would like to be fed, too. Now. Anyway, I liked these pics alot 🙂


I thought they were pretty good (in an arty farty type way) for an eleven year old. Mind you, they were taken when she was supposed to be getting ready for school, but thats another story.
Here is how Fuzzy normally looks 🙂

Our Real Estate inspection is tomorrow. Our lease says that we aren’t supposed to have pets, but birds in cages and crabs in tanks are okay. Therefore, we aren’t actually supposed to have a rabbit. So tomorrow all evidence of Twinky gets hidden away, and Twinky goes to my Mum’s house for the day. Mum lives just up the street.
Twinky would rather lay in the dirt 🙂

Happy Tuesday! Everyone go out and buy Baby Silk from Elann. It goes up at 1am locally, so I want it to be all gone by the time I get up. Please 😉

I hit a snag with the Neckdown pullover. I did the sleeve decreases as the pattern advised, and had finished the decreases by the time the sleeve was only two thirds as long as I needed it. I could have just kept on going, knitting plain until it was the length I wanted, but the shaping looked wonky. So I ripped the whole sleeve. So I have made no progress!
This weekend and today, in addition to the house cleaning I have been busily getting stuck into some christmas gift sewing. The gift knitting is done, just a few things to finish up with in the sewing and I’m done. I think I’m happy with what I’ve done. Will the recipients be happy? Let’s hope so.
Am I the only one who gets a little stressy when making handmade gifts? I love to receive them, but I always worry when I give them. What if they don’t like it? What if they don’t want it? What if the colour is wrong, or the size is wrong? Then again, it would be unlike me not to worry 🙂
Emily’s social life continues apace. School Dance this Wednesday, End of year pool party on Friday. Year Six Farewell dinner dance next Tuesday. I should have half the fun!
Elann is releasing Peruvian Baby Silk again. Why have they done this to me? My stash is not shrinking. I have spent most of the day trying to justify buying some, and I can’t even come up with a project I’d like to use it for. Ideas, people – leave me some 🙂

Why is it that whenever I plan to have some free time, it never happens? I thought that after the dance concert, I would be able to settle down a little and start to have a little more time. Ha!
My best friend from High School had a baby boy on Friday. So today, we ended up at the hospital visiting. He’s so cute. Not cute enough to make me want one, but cute 😉 We spent a couple of hours up there visiting. We did some Christmas shopping yesterday, and although I planned to finish the shopping, I couldn’t get a great many things. Who would think that it would be difficult to get Pokemon Leaf Green or Fire Red this close to Christmas? And why didn’t I buy it a month ago? This game is a neccesity – we’re driving 17 hours to Queensland, and 17 hours back. I need it to keep Em quiet 😉
We rent our house, and the Real Estate sent me a letter on Wednesday saying that they are coming to inspect the house this Wednesday, so every other spare moment has been taken up with house cleaning. My favourite pastime. No, really. Really. No you’re right, not even I believe it.
And finally, this is the corner where the Christmas Tree goes.

What do you notice? (Not the stash box under the table!)
No Christmas Tree! I figure that seeing as we’re not even going to be here at Christmas, I needn’t bother. I haven’t even put the wreath on the door. Am I mean?